DK DPS guide of WOW

2009 - 7 - 18

 

With that said, the DK is a very complicated class to begin to master. There are several mechanics at

work that make this class so.

 

1) It is a melee class. Generally speaking, it is more dangerous and harder on positioning for melee

classes than for ranged classes. There are certainly some exceptions to this, but one cannot deny that

there are more melee unfriendly fights than there are ranged unfriendly fights.

 

2) The class runs on two resource systems as opposed to one. Runic power's (RP) closest equivalent

is rage, but even that is a limited comparison (RP is only generated from using rune moves, and does

not generate from being hit or hitting something with auto-attacks). The rune system is somewhat

similar to energy, except it is much more stringent and restrictive in terms of what you can use runes

for (Death runes help to mitigate this a bit) and there are extremely few ways to refresh runes before

their 10 second cooldown. This can be very attention-demanding for some players, especially also

given the need to watch for melee dangers/repositioning.

 

3) The class also makes usage of a DoT's. For shadow priests and affliction warlocks before 3.0, the

rule of thumb for DoT's was to let them run their full course, then immediately refresh after they had

worn off (This is so that they can get their last tick of damage, and to maximize the amount of time

you spend not refreshing DoT's so you can use your other damage-dealing moves). Granted that the

DoT's are not a tremendous portion of our DPS, but for those looking to maximize their DPS this is

something you need to consider.

 

4) The class makes use of arguably the most instant-attacks in the whole game in order to do the

majority of its DPS. Most of the time, your usage of cooldowns will be fairly simple decisions (I

have my diseases up and a frost/unholy rune combo is available, so I will burn it out my Scourge

Strike/Obliterate. I have blood runes up, so I will blood strike/heart strike). But there are many

decisions you make on a micro-level that are small at the moment, but overtime these decisions will

ultimately decide just how much extra output you are squeezing out through your skill priorities (Do

I sneak in a death coil or use a blood strike? I'm sitting at 60 RP and I have a F/U move popping in 1

second, do I use a RP dump or wait and use the FU move?) This is a class where attention to detail

makes a big difference, along with doing some mental math when monitoring your RP.

 

Perhaps there are more things to mention, but this is what I can think of at the moment. What I'm

about to post is not for people who are just looking to play DK's in a very lackadaisical manner.

These are things I have learned and experienced that I think may help you if you're looking to do your

role as DK DPS'ers well, at least as far as my experiences with unholy and frost have been in raids.

 

Without further ado, let's get to the meat of what I hope will interest you. Please note this is primarily

for the purposes of raiding and running instances, and not for PvP or solo-grinding